Whether you believe it or not, I do understand the rules.
I was and always am concerned about the potential for injury. First thing any owner must be concerned about is that. Fortunately, as far as I know, none of Stinger's crew was seriously injured. Two of the five were in the water hanging on to stanchions. With all those lines free, anything could have happened. Nevertheless they calmly recovered and dodged the rest of the bullets on the way back to slip .
Boats and Chutes are just $$$ and easily replaced. If your going to race you must accept the price in every aspect. But the hardware is easy to replace. People are another matter entirely. Sitting here all locked up from surgery, I know what it would be like to get seriously injured, wind up in hospital and not be able to sail for an extended period.
What I did not understand at first was when the carnage happened. As it was toward the end nothing much could or should have been done. I remember getting blasted in one of these just after the start. The then Commodore could be heard screaming over channel 68 that the race was officially canceled and everyone should get off the Bay ASAP. I think that race was won by Roy Crawford on The Great Escape.
I was and always am concerned about the potential for injury. First thing any owner must be concerned about is that. Fortunately, as far as I know, none of Stinger's crew was seriously injured. Two of the five were in the water hanging on to stanchions. With all those lines free, anything could have happened. Nevertheless they calmly recovered and dodged the rest of the bullets on the way back to slip .
Boats and Chutes are just $$$ and easily replaced. If your going to race you must accept the price in every aspect. But the hardware is easy to replace. People are another matter entirely. Sitting here all locked up from surgery, I know what it would be like to get seriously injured, wind up in hospital and not be able to sail for an extended period.
What I did not understand at first was when the carnage happened. As it was toward the end nothing much could or should have been done. I remember getting blasted in one of these just after the start. The then Commodore could be heard screaming over channel 68 that the race was officially canceled and everyone should get off the Bay ASAP. I think that race was won by Roy Crawford on The Great Escape.